Human migration, hunter-gatherers to agriculture

The Pulitzer Prize winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, written by Jared Diamond (1997), documented that throughout human history, hunter-gathers were always subdued by people groups who had transitioned to agriculture.

Flax was cultivated as a source for linseed oil and fiber for clothes, ropes, rugs, bedding, curtains, and sails.

Agricultural domestication of plants led to the domestication of animals, such as: donkey, horse, camel, pig, chicken, cattle and oxen.

Harvests led to storage techniques, methods of transporting, record-keeping, irrigation, and the smelting of metals for tools.

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Record-keeping developed into writing, which allowed for knowledge and ideas to pass to subsequent generations, creating the cumulative effect of advancing civilization.

Reeds and clay were used for building materials.

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Excess crops led to trading and the exchange of goods and ideas.

Land used for farming gradually left the soil depleted of nutrients, so more land would be cleared.

As deforestation and soil depletion took its toll, it led agriculturally-based civilizations to look for more land, and thus become expansionist, with exception of the Nile river valley where annual flooding replenished the soil.

Expansion of agriculturally developed civilizations crowded out less advanced hunter-gathers, and led to conflict, wars, and military conquests.

Displaced peoples migrated further away.

Jared Diamond, in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, documented that the phenomenon of agricultural cultures displacing hunter-gatherer cultures occurred worldwide.

It occurred:

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from the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia to Central Asia,

to Europe,

to Africa,

to India,

to the Far East,

to Indonesia,

to the Pacific Islands, and

to North America,

then Central and South America.

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Archaeologists and anthropologists generally agree that the most probable explanation for humans migrating to the Americas, is that sometime in the ancient past, people traveled from Asia and Siberia across the Bering Strait, which was either frozen or at lower sea levels, to the North American continent, then spread south.

These aboriginal first inhabitants of the Americas were largely neolithic (new stone age) hunter-gatherers, as the abundance of grasslands and wild animals provided little motivation to transition to agriculture.

Notable exceptions were semi-bronze age civilizations of:

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Mississippi Cahokia,

Mesoamerica, and

Andean.

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These cultivated maize, beans, squashes, chili peppers, and cotton.

Most native tribes became expert in hunting and gathering, and, though no fault of their own, remained limited in their development of technical innovations, manufacturing skills, record-keeping, and written communication, features which usually accompanied agricultural societies.

At the time of Columbus' first voyage, Europe, China, Japan, India, Persia, and Ottoman Turks, had the cumulative knowledge of several thousand years of technological advancements, in ship building, astronomy, navigation, steel weapons, armor, gunpowder, cannons, communication, domestication of horses and cattle, and battle tactics.

From the initial arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere five centuries ago, attitudes and policies toward native Americans went through eight general phases:

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Spanish enslavement and conversions;

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French missionaries, assimilation, and evangelization;

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English and American treaties, missionaries, land encroachment, and wars;

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Democrat Party policy of Indian removal;

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Republican Party policy of Indian reservations;

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Big government assimilation efforts;

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Casinos:

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Financial incentives to allow access for Islamization.

Spanish enslavement and conversions:

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The general timeline began when Muslim Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453, cutting off the land routes to India and China.

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In 1492, Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella drove Muslims out of Spain and then sent Columbus to find a sea route to India and China.

Columbus sailed west and thought he had found India, so he referred to the people he met as "Indians," and the name stuck.

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Spain sent conquistadors to explore for treasures, notably:

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Balboa (1513);

Ponce de León (1513, 1521);

Cortés (1518-1521);

Pizarro (1524-1532);

Desoto (1539-1542); and

Coronado (1540-1542).

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In one aspect, it was the world's most advanced Renaissance military power, Spain, coming into contact with scattered peoples that were technically still in the bronze age.

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Spaniards conquered Indians by siding with oppressed minorities against the ruling classes, who were, in certain cases, demanding captives for human sacrifice and cannibalism in their pagan worship of spirits and nature.

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Spanish enslaved many Indians in Central and South America, being supported ideologically by the Spanish humanist Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who argued Indians were less than human.

Spanish Catholic priest Bartolomé de las Casas defended the Indians, arguing that they were indeed fully human, and as such should be treated fairly.

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He helped pressure the King of Spain to issue New Laws ending slavery.

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Though conquistadors and humanists, such as Sepúlveda, were greed-motivated, there were also missionaries, like Bartolomé de las Casas, who were Gospel-motivated.

Once enslavement of Indians was outlawed, numerous Spanish and Portuguese plantation owners began purchasing Africans from Muslim slave markets and bringing them to the New World.

French missionaries, assimilation, and evangelization:

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In North America, the French arrived in Canada beginning with Jacques Cartier's voyages (1534-1542).

﻿French Catholic missionaries were received favorably from the time of Pere Jacques Marquette to Pierre-Jean DeSmet.

English and American treaties, missionaries, land encroachment, and wars:

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English settlers landed in Virginia in 1607.

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In exchange for furs, some traded knives, guns, and alcohol with the Indians, with a secondary agenda of pushing them back.

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Others had a charitable agenda, wanting to treat Indians with respect, such as William Penn, who insisted on dealing fairly with them. In disputes with Indians, Penn had juries be comprised of six settlers and six Indians.

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Missionaries, caring for their eternal welfare, led evangelizing efforts among Indians, such as John Eliot, David Brainerd and Count Zinzendorf of Moravia.

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Pilgrims settled in Massachusetts and made a long-lasting treaties with the Indians, beginning with Governor John Carter and Chief Massasoit.

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Chief Massaoit died leaving his son Philip to become chief in 1662.

King (Chief) Philip and the new governor of Massachusetts, Josiah Winslow, did not have good relations, as Winslow did not take their concerns seriously enough.

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The situation deteriorated, leading to the outbreak of King Philip's War, 1675-1678.

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After the Indians lost, significant areas of their land were confiscated.

Later, between 1754 and 1763, the French and Indian War broke out, with Indians being pulled into the larger, centuries' old European conflict between the British and the French.

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Many Indians sided with the French.

During this war, the young British-American Colonel George Washington built Fort Necessity on Great Meadows in 1754. He received a letter from his brother Lawrence's father-in-law, Mr. William Fairfax:

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"I will not doubt your having public prayers in the camp, especially when the Indian families are your guests, that they, seeing your plain manner of worship, may have their curiosity excited to be informed why we do not use the ceremonies of the French, which being well explained to their understandings, will more and more dispose them to receive our baptism, and unite in strict bonds of cordial friendship."

When France lost the war, all the French territory west of the Appalachians to the Mississippi was ceded to Britain.

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The Indians who had sided with the French lost large areas of land.

Later, during the Revolutionary War, General George Washington was visited at his Middle Brook military encampment on May 12, 1779, by Delaware Indian Chiefs who brought three youths. Washington assured them:

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"Brothers: I am glad you have brought three of the Children of your principal Chiefs to be educated with us. I am sure Congress will open the Arms of love to them, and will look upon them as their own Children, and will have them educated accordingly.

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This is a great mark of your confidence and of your desire to preserve the friendship between the Two Nations to the end of time, and to become One people with your Brethren of the United States ..."

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Washington continued:

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"You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.

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Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention; and to tie the knot of friendship and union so fast, that nothing shall ever be able to loose it ...

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And I pray God He may make your Nation wise and strong."

After the Revolution, the Indians who had sided with the British lost lands.

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George Washington retired to Mount Vernon where he wrote to the President of the Continental Congress, February 8, 1785:

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"Toward the latter part of the year 1783, I was honored with a letter from the Countess of Huntington, briefly reciting her benevolent intention of spreading Christianity among the Tribes of Indians inhabiting our Western Territory;

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and expressing a desire of my advice and assistance to carry this charitable design into execution.

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I wrote her Ladyship ... that I would give every aid in my power, consistent with the ease and tranquility, to which I meant to devote the remainder of my life, to carry her plan into effect ...

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Her Ladyship has spoken so feelingly and sensibly, on the religious and benevolent purposes of the plan, that no language of which I am possessed, can add aught to enforce her observations."

President Washington addressed Congress, November 6, 1792:

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"Laws will expire during the present session. Among these, that which regulates trade ... with the Indian tribes ...

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Your common deliberations ... will, I trust, be productive ... to our constituents ... by conciliating more and more their ultimate suffrage ... and confirm their attachment to that Constitution ... upon which, under Divine Providence, materially depend ... their happiness."

On AUGUST 29, 1796, President George Washington dictated a "Talk" to the Cherokee Nation:

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"Beloved Cherokees: The wise men of the United States meet once a year, to consider what will be for the good of all their people ...

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I have thought that a meeting of your wise men once or twice a year would be alike useful to you ...

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I now send my best wishes to the Cherokees, and pray the Great Spirit to preserve them."

During the War of 1812, many Indians again sided with the British, such as in the Fort Mims Massacre, or Chief Tecumseh in the battle for Detroit and the Northwest Territory.

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When the British lost, the Indians that sided with them lost more land.

Democrat Party policy of Indian removal:

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When gold was discovered in Georgia in 1828, greed-motivated settlers encroachment onto Indian lands.

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The big-government solution was the removal policy, passed by Congress as the Indian Removal Act of 1830. It was signed by the first Democrat President, Andrew Jackson.

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The Federal Government forced thousands of Indians to migrate on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.

Republican Party policy of Indian reservations:

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Republican President Ulysses S. Grant ended the removal policy and began the reservation policy, encouraging Christian missions among the Indians.

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This policy did preserve the Indians' tribal identity, but in solving one problem, it created another.

Big government assimilation efforts:

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In 1887, the Federal Government attempted another big government solution with the Dawes Act, where to have Indians assimilate, children would be removed from their families and reeducated in a Federally controlled common-core type program.

When it was discovered that Indian Reservations had valuable resources of oil, gas, minerals, and gold, greed-motivated politicians found ways to take more Indian reservation land.

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 was supposed to give Indians more control over their lives but ironically resulted in the Federal Government getting more involved in internal tribal affairs.

Henry Ford is credited with stating:

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"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him, better take a closer look at the American Indian."

Another big government solution was a Relocation Program in the 1950's which brought tens of thousands of Indians into inner cities for low-wage jobs and more tribal lands were transferred to private ownership.

Republican President Nixon repudiated this policy and instituted laws bolstering tribal sovereignty, though this sovereignty was gradually eroded by state and local jurisdictions.

Casinos:

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The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, brought casinos, bingo halls, and other greed-motivated gaming interests onto Indian reservations.

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Gambling operations have increased to include 460 in 2011, run by 240 tribes, with total annual revenue of $27 billion, accompanied by significant contributions to political parties and candidates.

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Recipients of these political contributions promoted expansion of gambling, as well as the morally liberal issues that accompany it.

Financial incentives to allow access for Islamization:

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In recent years, doors have opened for Islamic infiltration, which historically has spread by exploiting feelings of victimhood among segments of the population.

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Some have even fabricated histories of an early Islamic presence in America.

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Attempts to make inroads have occurred not just on Indian Reservations, but among indigenous populations in the Caribbean, and Central and South America, namely:

In 2012, U.S. Rep. Tom Cole R-Okla, introduced a bill to allow Muslims from Turkey special access to Indians, stating:

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"I was approached by the Turkish Coalition of America who have a deep interest in Turkey and American Indians ... Turkey's continued interest in expanding business and cultural ties with the American Indian community ... across the U.S."

John Berrey, chairman of the Quapaw Tribe (Oklahoma), claimed:

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"The Turkish and Native American peoples are beginning to come together under their own momentum to develop broader and deeper economic and cultural ties."

Beginning in 2008, the Turkish Coalition of America has awarded scholarships for Native American students to study abroad in Turkey.

The Turkish Coalition of America spent millions flying Native American tribal leaders to Turkey, as reported on its 2010 IRS Form 990: "sponsorship of educational travel for congressional members and staff as well as Native American leaders."

The Indian Country Today Media Network reported:

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"The first Native American Business Cooperation Trip to Turkey, attracting 20 leaders from 17 Native American tribes. .. met with Turkish high officials, including Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu," as reported by the Associated Press.

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In 2011, Turkey's deputy minister for foreign trade was the first foreign government official ever to address the American Indian Business Trade Fair and the Reservation Economic Summit (RES) in Las Vegas.

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The Warm Springs Tribes in Oregon presented Turkish government leaders with a gift at the residence of the Turkish ambassador to the United States in November 2013. Indianz.com reported (9/9/15): "Top officials from Turkey have indeed reached out to Indian Country."

Turkey's advances into the Native American tribes are promoted by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP) who have been moving Turkey towards a more fundamentalist sharia Islamic State.

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Some suspect Erdogan desires to position himself as caliph of a reemerging Islamic Caliphate. The Economist reported (2/4/16):

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﻿"Mr Erdogan made a telling remark ... 'Democracy is like a train,' he said, 'you get off once you have reached your destination.'"

The Agence France-Presse reported Turkish businesses are acting as a front for Islamist extremists:

Long wary of the influence of Islamic fundamentalism ... secular authorities appear to be linking Turkish private business to the activities of the Nurcus, an Islamic group that is banned in the country."

Indian reservations along America's southern borders, such at the Tohono, are being overrun by illegals which include drug gangs infiltrated by Islamic groups, such as ISIS, Hamas, and Hezbollah.

Throughout the five centuries of Indian policies in the Americas, there have regrettably been greed-motivated individuals and politicians who wanted to take advantage of native Americans.

Thankfully, there have also been Gospel-motivated individuals who insisted on treating native Americans fairly, such as William Penn, and improve their well-being, such as Bartolome' de Las Casas, who wrote:

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"The main goal of divine Providence in the discovery of these tribes ... is ... the conversion and well-being of souls, and to this goal everything temporal must necessarily be directed."